Hotels First Ventured into Retail Amenity Sales Offering Robes for Sale,
Now Guests Are Laying Out $4,000 for a Complete Ritz Carlton Bed Set;
The Broadmoor Generates $500,000 a Year Selling Room Amenities

By Jennifer Alsever, The Denver PostKnight Ridder/Tribune Business News

May 23, 2004 - Ever wish you could sleep as if you were on vacation? For $4,000, you can buy a hotel bed.

High-end
hotels, coming off three years of record-low occupancies, have turned
guest rooms into virtual retail showrooms, offering for sale nearly
everything in the room.

Still,
high-end hotel chains say sales of pricey furniture and amenities
provide an additional revenue stream that has seen them through hard
economic times -- and has perhaps helped prevent theft.

The
Westin Tabor Center hotel in downtown Denver now slips brochures in
guest rooms touting $130 dual shower heads, $2,990 king-size down
feather beds and $165 bed trays like those used in rooms.

By
comparison, a standard shower head from Home Depot costs about $15 to
$20. A king-size bed from Sears with Pottery Barn sheets and a
comforter can together cost less than $900. A breakfast tray from
Target costs $10.

The Broadmoor hotel in Colorado Springs sells
$42 bone-shaped dog dishes and $142 pet beds with the Broadmoor logo --
the same kind provided to guests who bring along their furry friends.
Guests can even buy the dinner plates used in room service for $22 or
the coffee cup set for $16.

The Ritz Carlton Hotel in Beaver
Creek touts imported sheets, duvet covers, feather pillows and
king-size beds. Some guests have laid out $4,000 for the complete
package, said Vivian Deuschl, a vice president of the 57-hotel Ritz
chain.

"We sell hundreds of thousands of dollars" worth of bedding, she said, not to mention end tables and armoires seen in rooms.

"It's like bringing a souvenir to a new level," Deuschl said.

When
occupancy rates dipped in 2000, Ritz executives began scouring
properties looking for a supply of items customers might see and want
to buy, especially those that were handcrafted or imported.

"Now
we're trying to figure out what is the next thing we can do," Deuschl
said. "One of the messages is anything that is in your guest room, we
will try to get it for you." Restaurants, too, are getting into the
retail game with merchandise that has moved beyond the traditional logo
baseball caps and beer mugs.

Tamayo restaurant in downtown
Denver plans to hawk handcrafted water pitchers seen on dinner tables
for $400 and silver-plated creamer and sugar bowls for $100.

The
Flagstaff House restaurant in Boulder offers customers some 60 items on
its website -- from $38 champagne flutes to $32 platters seen on dining
tables. (The eatery also ships food orders such as roasted lamb loin
packed in ice.)

The Flagstaff House started its retail website
after more patrons asked to take home items from the table, said Scott
Monette, Flagstaff's co-owner.

He also admits that offering
items for sale is a polite way to get around the problem of
sticky-fingered guests. For years, restaurants have lost money as
customers lift everything from toilet-paper holders to salt-and-pepper
shakers.

Eateries have been known to nail down wall decorations or put sharp edges on the bottoms of bud vases to deter thieves.

"They're
trying to turn the loss of an asset into a profit center," said Pete
Meersman, president of the Colorado Restaurant Association.

Hotels
first ventured into retail room sales by leaving notes on hangers
offering the robes and towels for sale to discourage people from
swiping them.

Selling room amenities at The Broadmoor generates
an extra $500,000 a year, said Rhonda Kenny, the hotel director of
retail sales. "It really does help our business."

Such sales so
far tend to be isolated to pricier hotels and only make up a tiny piece
-- 1 percent to 2 percent -- of overall revenues at each resort, said
Mandelbaum, the hospitality researcher.

But when guests buy the
items, it can be a powerful marketing tool, he said. They will be
reminded of the hotel when using a hotel shower head or eating off a
restaurant's plate.

But do people really want at home what they
see at a hotel? Ask Dani Stern, Westin Tabor Center manager, and you
will hear an emphatic "yes."

"I personally have had a guest
come up to me, and they said, 'Whatever I can buy in the room, I want.
I want the pillow; I like what the coffee is on; I want the tray. I
want the robe. I want the slippers. I want the shower rods, the hooks,
everything,'" Stern said.

Money is not an issue for many guests, added Deuschl of the Ritz.

At least one Westin guest interviewed by The Denver Post, however, wasn't so keen on buying items from a hotel room.

"Why
would I?" said Norma Gyle, Connecticut's commissioner of public health
who stayed at the Westin in downtown Denver recently. "Let's be honest
... If I wanted something like that, I would pay a lot lower prices in
retail stores."

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